| Most colleges use freshmen year gpa as a part of gpa calculations in admissions. However most colleges also place a greater emphasis on junior and senior year grades versus freshmen year grades, and they like to see upward trends in the grades (i.e start out slow freshmen year and get better grades as you go along. Unlike the UCs, most schools to do not use mechancial formulas and instead use a "holistic" based admissions process. Therefore the "hiccup" in your daughter's junior year will be viewed in the context of her whole application and may not hurt her too much.
For future reference, since this question has little to do with Rice specifically, you probably should have posted it in the College Admissions Forum in order to get a better response. | 
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